Until Rod Blagojevich's arrest on corruption charges nearly four years ago, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was the ever-aggressive politician, a man constantly on the move trying to raise his profile and build a family political dynasty.

Now, he and his political future are in an undisclosed location.

Last week's announcement by the veteran congressman's staff that Jackson is being treated for an unspecified "mood disorder" by an unnamed doctor, after more than a month off the job, is the latest in a downward spiral for a politician whose name once was bandied about for mayor and even senator.

The lack of details continued the lockdown approach his camp has taken toward his condition: Aides didn't announce Jackson had taken a medical leave from Congress until more than two weeks after it began June 10. Even the congressman's publicity-seeking father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, has tried to duck reporters.

One of the congressman's staunchest defenders is Roland Burris, who got the controversial Blagojevich appointment to the Senate in a scandal that cost the governor his job and his freedom. Also tarnished was Rep. Jackson, who had so desperately coveted the seat previously held by President Barack Obama that it ensnarled him in an ongoing House ethics investigation.

"I've got enough seniority around here to tell you media people to cool it," Burris told reporters at the annual Rainbow/PUSH Coalition convention last week, regarding the Jackson team's failure to be more forthcoming. "You all are driving the people. You all are driving it. The people are not driving it."

But Burris doesn't speak for the people of the 2nd Congressional District.

"In one word, it's been horrible," said Corey Daniels, 38, who lives and works as a barber in West Pullman. "He is a public official, and the key word there is 'public.' The minute he took a leave of absence, he should have let the public know."

Daniels said he has voted for Jackson in the past but has become increasingly disillusioned after the congressman's name was brought up during the Blagojevich scandal. Yet Daniels said he thinks the latest controversy won't have much political impact on the 17-year Democrat's re-election bid.

Eva Greene, who works at a church in West Pullman, said she supports Jackson and is not troubled by the scarcity of details.

"I think it's personal, his health is personal," said Greene, 66. "And when he wants to disclose it, it's up to him."

Jackson has never been in political jeopardy, even now amid his travails, in a redrawn yet heavily Democratic 2nd District.

Jackson's political operation shoved out the once-powerful Shaw brothers, Bill and Bob, twins who have held several political posts.

By 2005, Jackson was on the list of usual suspects who could potentially challenge then-Mayor Richard Daley. Never hesitant to criticize Daley, Jackson in September 2006 declared himself to be 75 percent certain he would run.

But after Democrats won the House majority that November, Jackson took himself out of the mayoral derby. His seniority led him to Illinois' only seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. He also focused on getting his wife, Sandi, elected to the City Council in 2007. In that 7th Ward contest, she bested another political foe, the daughter of Cook County Commissioner William Beavers.

The congressman's stature as the state's leading African-American politician had been eclipsed by Obama's 2004 victory as U.S. senator and 2008 win of the presidency, though Jackson served as an able Obama surrogate and national campaign co-chair. His decision to lead a hug-fest with longtime foes, including Daley, at the 2008 Democratic National Convention spelled an end to his mayoral efforts.

By then, Jackson had moved on to consider the prospects of an Obama presidential win and an open Senate vacancy. But his voracious angling and highly public campaigning to try to win the appointment came with a steep price.

Prosecutors alleged that in Blagojevich's attempt to sell Obama's Senate seat, longtime Jackson friend and businessman Raghuveer Nayak was prepared to raise up to $6 million in campaign donations if the then-governor named the congressman to the post. Nayak also paid for airfare for a female social acquaintance of Jackson's to fly to Chicago, Jackson has acknowledged.

Jackson has maintained he was unaware of Nayak's alleged pay-for-play attempts to get the Senate seat for him and said he expects to be vindicated in a House Ethics Committee investigation of the matter — an inquiry that had been stalled by the federal prosecution that ended up sending Blagojevich to 14 years in prison.